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Overview

Research
and patient care programs at UCSF in immunology, immune disorders and
infectious diseases are regarded as national models, with UCSF scientists
recognized for some of the most influential advances in basic science research.
Their work has revealed the underpinnings of immune action and infection –
insights that are pointing the way to better treatments. This expertise also
translates into outstanding educational programs.

National
rankings underscore UCSF’s high caliber. The 2010-2011 US News & World Report survey on the nation’s best hospitals
names UCSF patient care programs in diabetes, endocrine disorders and
rheumatology among the top 10, and the US
News& World Report survey on
best graduate schools ranks UCSF training in HIV/AIDS and in immunology and
infectious diseases as the premier programs in the country: No. 1 and No. 2,
respectively.

“UCSF
has developed a superb research partnership in immunology and infectious
diseases; the rate of progress is only accelerating,” says Jeffrey Bluestone,
PhD, UCSF executive vice chancellor and provost and A.W. and Mary Margaret
Clausen Distinguished Professor in Metabolism and Endocrinology.

“UCSF
has become a world leader in research to understand how the key molecular
players interact to trigger disease – whether initiated by pathogens or by
the body’s own immune system. Scientists focusing on both routes of disease
interact intensively here, and their collaborations are speeding progress to
new therapies,” says Bluestone.

Patients
benefit directly from the collaboration of UCSF basic science and
clinical research teams and from the opportunity to enroll in numerous
clinical trials, which are testing new treatments for immunological and
infectious diseases and available at UCSF as a leading academic medical center.

Among
other achievements in these specialties, UCSF is recognized for pioneering
strategies to more precisely target the causes of immune system disorders and
transplant rejection, while reducing treatment side effects, and for
contributing to new approaches to treat diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,
cancer, airway diseases and organ rejection.

Infectious
diseases teams established UCSF at the forefront of research and clinical
excellence in HIV- and AIDS-related diseases in the early 1980s, and today the
UCSF treatment model, developed in collaboration with UCSF-affiliated San
Francisco General Hospital, is used around the world.